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Coming late to this thread now, I'm a bit surprised (though not entirely) to find no mention of the recent passing of Darwyn Cooke; I suspect his DC work came years after the era most posters here know best. I must confess I'm only just know starting to become aware of his work myself, just about the same time he left us, but he did some wonderful stuff for DC in the last decade-and-a-half or so, after starting in the '90s with DC's television animation of that time. His work is stylized, both retro and fresh, and seems to have come as a welcome relief after the previously-discussed excesses and grotesqueries that afflicted so many comics in the '90s; I wish I'd come across his work earlier. Anyway, he passed away in May after a battle with cancer, at a far-too-young 53. What I've seen so far of his stuff is well worth checking out.
Yeah, Darwyn Cooke's work was fantastic. I first discovered his work with Justice League: The New Frontier. An amazing series, and it remains my favorite of his work. There is still a lot of his work I need to discover. I have heard great things about his adaptations of the Parker series. That wasn't published by DC, so I guess that is off topic.
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Doug Moench had a run on The Spectre that interests me, as I've never read it. It precedes the Ostrander run you mention. The late '80s was pretty much my "dark ages" of comics--with exceptions. Have you read any of the Moench Spectre stories? Here's a retrospective:
https://nothingbutcomics.net/2014/09/25/dcs-post-crisis-rebirth-doug-moenchs-spectre/
Speaking of Jim Aparo, I've also gone on a "Brave and the Bold"-comics-reading bender lately and it was his work there that made him one of my favorite Batman artists. In fact, Jim Aparo is always the first artist I think of whenever I recall various Batman artists.
JLA #200 featured a well-rendered battle between Aquaman and Red Tornado--whom I always saw as the DC equivalent of The Vision. Fun book and one I'm pleased to finally have gotten after all these years.
Thanks for the entertaining article. I was barely scratching the surface of DC comics when this series came out. Although I knew many of the characters through tv and movies, I first started buying DC comics with the Legends mini-series and John Byrne's rebooting of Superman. So Spectre is not someone I was familiar with when this series was released, and I didn't discover him until later. I am not surprised that this series de-powered him, as that seemed to be an across the board mandate at the time, and the reduction in powers were most apparent with Superman and Flash. I guess having them less powerful made them more relatable or something.
Doug Moench is a solid writer, and I would love to check out the series if DC ever reprints it in trade. The covers alone make it worth checking out. Given how aggressive DC seems to be at reprinting their older stuff it is certainly possible this will eventually happen. Maybe one of the DC tv shows can feature him in a few episodes to raise his popularity.
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This one also includes the 1980 miniseries The Untold Legend of The Batman, which was heavily advertised that spring and early summer of 1980 yet has long-since been forgotten....
I haven't forgotten this, because somewhere in the early nineties, I think, I picked up the b&w paperback version.
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In Appreciation: Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez
If you ever saw a DC character on a lunchbox, a coloring book, jigsaw puzzle, greeting card, or the package of a "Super Powers" action figure (which were just a bit after my time) chances are the (uncredited) artwork was by the great Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez.
I'm not 100% certain, but he may have also been the talent behind DC's Hostess Cakes ads (I believe Al Milgrom did most of Marvel's)
Yeah, Garcia-Lopez is an incredible artist. They used a lot of his artwork in the original DC Heroes role-playing game, which was my first real exposure to many of the DC characters. Reading about the characters and their histories inspired me to collect DC comics.
The art used, and was also used on a lot of the lunch boxes, clothing, sheets, and other merchandise comes from the style guide Garcia-Lopez produced that DC had its artists use as a reference. http://www.newsarama.com/25677-remembering-dc-comics-1982-style-guide.html
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The Len Wein-Tom Mandrake Batman comic from the heretofore unknown-to-me DC RETROACTIVE line is also included in the Wein Batman volume. I certainly like the series concept, which also included the following:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DC_Retroactive
The Batman '90s volume is a Grant-Breyfogle story! Must. Seek. This. Out.
I took the plunge and ordered the Len Wein Batman collection. Aside from the Untold Legend of Batman miniseries, I don't think there is much in that book that I have read. Definitely looking forward to checking it out.
I vaguely remember the DC Retroactive series, but I only bought a few books. I did get the '70s Green Lantern book, which was written by Denny O'Neil and drawn by Mike Grell, and featured a Green Lantern/Green Arrow story. The story itself was nothing special, but the Mike Grell art was nice. I always had the feeling that O'Neil was more comfortable writing Green Arrow than he was Lantern, and it shows in this book, as I recall Ollie getting most of the spotlight.
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While there are many supreme artists who've merited the title 'Genius' in the long
and generally universally under-valued history of comics, we daresay the above
individual has achieved quite a distinctive first.
The MacArthur Genius Awards go to a specially-selected group of creatives from
all walks of life - theatre, art, academia, literature, poetry, scientists - to enable them
to pursue their artistic purpose free from the constraints one usually encounters
trying to balance a life with a vision to express your view of it.
The formidable fact it also comes with a $625,000
stipend spread over five years ain't nothin' to sneeze at, either.
Mr. Yang, in addition to being a graphic novelist, is also a celebrated cartoonist and teacher and one of DC's top writers.
He'll now go down in history in his own unique - um - write 
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